British Army POWs in Russia c.1918-20

[simonby]

I recently discovered that a relative of mine, Pte Henry. B. Bendrey, Royal Scots, was a prisoner of the Bolsheviks in Russia in c.1918. It is rumoured that he spent 18 months a prisoner of the 'Reds'!

Can anyone suggest where I might find out more about POWs in Russia in this period? I would love to find a direct reference to Henry, or one of his 'comrades' - pardon the pun!

My thanks in anticipation,

Simon Bendry

[Dolphin]

Simon

This won't help with the specifics of your relative's capture and incarceration, but for a general history of Allied Intervention in Russia, you could look for a copy of:

The Day We Almost Bombed Moscow by Christopher Dobson and John Miller; ISBN 0 340 33723 0.

I hope this helps.

Gareth

[simonby]

Gareth,

Many thanks for your suggestion. I shall head down to the library tomorrow and see if they have it.

Cheers,

Simon

[Dever Mayfly]

This thread is very old, but if you are still looking, I can point you in the direction of the British Government's 1920 Committee to Collect Information on Russia chaired by Lord Emmott and other sources which I used in my book about British Army PoWs caught in Siberia.  The main fact is that all British Army PoWs were exchanged in April 1920 except for 15 who were captured in Siberia and one captured at Baku.  If he spent 18 months as a PoW, he must have been captured in 1918, possibly before the Armistice.

[Waggoner]

Is there a link to the 1920 Commission?

 

All the vest,

 

Gary

[wrightdw]

I have him in the Roll of POW's of the Soviets in my book as 'BENDRY, B. 377027 Pte 2/10RScots' although I don't have record of the date or circumstances he was likely taken POW during October or November 1918 when 2/10th Royal Scots saw alot of action against the Red Army on the Dvina River front, in fact 2/10th Royal Scots suffered more casualties and POW's than any other unit that served in Russia 1918-20. They arrived at Archangel in September 1918 and were withdrawn in June 1919 just before the North Russia Relief Force arrived.

Edited 4 February , 2020 by wrightdw

[David Filsell]

For German experiences of being in prisoner of war, Eric Edwin Dwingers book "The Army Behind the Wire", translated into English and published in 1930 by George Allen and Unwin is a real eye opener on Russian abuse, mistreatment, cruelty and murder of German prisoners of war. Written by a survivor of the camps it reveals camps without heat, light, adequate clothing, food, and subject to cruel punishments, lack of fuel for fires, dying literally in their thousands in both Siberia and places even worse and haulocastic in its intentions.

Edited 5 February , 2020 by David Filsell

[Dever Mayfly]

On 01/02/2020 at 18:56, Waggoner said:

Is there a link to the 1920 Commission?

 

All the vest,

 

Gary

I haven't found a link, but the confidential report can be read in the Lord Emmott Collection held by Nuffield College Library Archives, University of Oxford.  The references that I used include in Volume I (second day of the evidence gathering on Tuesday 15 June 1920), the record of an interview with Captain Francis McCullagh.  McCullagh's evidence is interesting because he was "the first witness we have had who has experience of [being terrorized to get information out of you], but what he says to Lord Emmott is slightly different to what he said to MI6 at the Hyde Park Hotel!  The referenc is ff 1-430 11/8.  The final prisoners (Major Leonard Vining, Captain Brian Horrocks, etc.) arrived in November after the report had been written.  The Committee interviewed Vining and Horrocks with the details of the former sent to the Prime Minister, David Lloyd George in a letter Lord Emmott wrote on 23rd December 1920.